Think about it. Everyone in America is an immigrant or the offspring of one. Only the red Indians were here, the original inhabitants native to the country, to welcome the strangers and feast them, and ended up a footnote in history, succumbing to the white mans whiskey, diseases and gunfire. History is seldom on the minds of the immigrants seeking to enter. Like the Skolnicks, a Jewish family of Vinitsa Geverna, in Romania, anxious to get away from the recurring pogrom and the 1917 Russian revolution, a stone s throw from them. There were six in the family: Jack Skolnick, his wife Sarah Krangold, and four daughters Mary, Dora, Betty and Pearl. They were among the fortunate. Relatives in New York sponsored their entry into the United States and they held a valid visa. But there were obstacles borders to cross and reaching a port to embark from. Betty, the next to the youngest and three years old, dimly remembered the first attempt made. They reached Antwerp aboard a ship, when the mother had an attack and was taken to the hospital there. Doctors diagnosed her condition not as a heart attack, but a mental breakdown, and she was institutionalized, too ill to travel.
Decision was made for Mary and Dora to proceed with the visa to New York, and the father and two youngest to remain behind. The sisters would not meet again for many years. Skolnick, although responsible for his wife, was not permitted to stay in Belgium and returned to Romania with the small ones. On their arrival the girls were immediately placed in an orphanage and left there for many years. Betty lost track. Then one day their father came for them. He did not explain his long absence. He was not one to talk, Betty said. But Betty had ears and she heard the word Hiatus and decided it was the name of their sponsors making it possible to go to America. They reached Ellis Island, believing their sisters or uncle would come with the visa issued yeas before. Immigration held them for two months and denied them entry. Again Hiatus arranged for them, this time to Canada. The United States passed new laws in 1921 and 1924, restricting immigration. The first was based on a quota system, the second on national origins , which also closed doors to those aliens ineligible for citizenship, specifically the Japanese and Orientals. Earlier laws had forbidden the Chinese.
When the girls reached Toronto, once again they were left in an orphanage until declared old enough to care for themselves in a motherless home. Skolnick did not prosper. He sold his wares from a pushcart. Later he rented space in their buildings basement and opened a fruitstand. Betty was old enough to work evenings so he could take off. It was a dull life for Betty and Pearl. Their older sisters were doing well in New York. The uncle provided them with an education and they married. Betty s dream was to get to the United States and live like them. The sisters were financially in a position to search for their mother, and traveled to Belgium, found her fit to travel, and brought her to Toronto. It was a time of family reunion, a joyous occasion. But it wasnt. Sarah, their mother, was unable to respond to shows of affection. The New York sisters stayed no longer than it took to deliver their mother. Betty was sad they made no contact after so long apart. She said Mary and Dora had so much to be happy with. But Dora, in middle age, committed suicide. Mary died much later, of heart attack. The meeting brought Betty and Pearl closer together, they were the only family they had each other. Today they are in communication regularly. Betty, 84, and Pearl 81. Pearl had a cancer operation last year, and it is in remission. When they speak on the phone, they remind themselves they are the only immigrants of the family living. Although there are many children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
For Betty the fruitstand was a happy venture. She went on a blind date and met her future husband. His name was Arthur Gold. He followed up the date to purchase fruit, then returned to court her. Betty said it was romantic. He proposed, had her fathers permission to marry her and live happily ever after. Two girls were born, Bernice and Sandra, in Canada; and Betty and Arthur emigrated to Los Angeles. It was in 1947. Betty remarked she finally made it to the United States as an immigrant! Arthur was a printer and opened a business printing menus for restaurants, to places like drugstore lunch counters and drive-in stands where carhops handed customers menus to order from. The Golds moved from Boyle Heights and made a home in the Fairfax District. The girls attended Fairfax High School. Bernice graduated but Sandra dropped out in her junior year to elope with a classmate. She was 17.

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This introduction is overlong for an everyday story about immigrants, their marriages or family experiences. All daily occurrences. Yet the events cover three generations and the outcome surprising, at least for me. Sandra Gold married my brother Jack after her teenage marriage failed. She had three girls: Cheryl, born 1958; Lori, 1960; Julie, 1962. Actually, it is the girls stories this writing of words have been leading up to. But then, where would we be without their ancestors? or their beginning?
Next, I asked Sandra when I informed her about the piece, Whats the title to be? She answered, Kimchee and Matzo ball. So, there is nothing more to be said of their alliance than it was very good. Like spicy kimchee and healthy matzo ball.
Jack retired from the army, looking to a life of ease, fishing, football games at the Coliseum (Rams home), sightseeing, etc. He met Sandie, the name she is affectionately known by. She lived next door to a friend he was visiting. Cheryl, nearing five years, took an instant liking to him, or it may have been his Buick station wagon in which she would soon be riding. One day she greeted him, Hello, Daddy, unexpectedly sweet and endearing to his campaign-hardened heart. Her greeting, when I heard the account, suggested John Aldens approach with Priscilla, but in reverse. Cheryl s intuition was correct. Jack proposed to Sandie and they were wed. And forgotten were the thoughts of a bachelors life of ease, although he didn t think he was giving up anything; he was gaining a warm family, which he had not experienced since his mother died. His first thoughts were how to support the ready-made family. His retirement pension was good enough for him, but he had four ladies hed like to live in style. (Not his words, his enthusiasm when I was introduced to them.) He went to work with the VA hospital in Sepulveda. He had not trained for anything but warfare, now he said he d do something to heal. Sandies thought was to have a child to meld their marriage, and she went ahead and had a son, who was named Terry. Terry grew up to be like Jack, steady and reliable. He and Julie spent time with me in their babyhood, so to speak. When they reached advanced age, like about seven, they sought out friends; I d become too old to keep up. After Terrys birth, Sandie attended adult education classes and received her diploma (GED); then a year at Valley College, and office practice followed. Then she was prepared to help with the family budget. Both parents working, children in school, and the house to keep up, Jack never worked such a schedule in the army, but he was happier.
As parents, the two followed Betty and Arthur s philosophy, to give the children space to grow in and learn to make decisions. Cheryl graduated from high school, married Richard Latimer whom she met at work. The company was relocated to Arizona, and the Latimers moved. Cheryl was brave, like Jack, taking on new responsibilities. Richard was divorced and had two children, a part-time father, and she a part-time mother until her children were born. When they arrived, she had a stay-at-home business. It was insurance work she carried on with the computer. Also her children were cooperative too, and her life, while very busy, was very satisfying.
The children are Daniel, 12, described as talented; Sydney Louise, 9, who at 3 years read; Sarah Nicole, 7, a straight A student, shy and loving; Shannon Leigh, 5, as happy, not a serious bone in her little body, wonderful to be around. An abundance of love in the family.
But it was of the faith she had found since her marriage that was most interesting, fitting in with the events that took place early this year that involved parents Jack and Sandie, and the role their childrens religion was to affect. Cheryl wrote of her conversion: that Richard was an inactive Mormon when they married. Then his parents died and he was depressed, unable to pull himself out of the gloom. I thought that if he went to his church, he would feel better. I went with him; went to all the meetings. Learned lots of things and never doubted anything I heard. It took five years to join the church, mainly because I didnt want to give up my Jewish heritage. But then I was told that I wouldn t have to because it is a Birthright so I was baptized. Currently she is working on the monthly ward news letter. Her past work included teaching primary children, three to four years of age; serving on the Homemaking Committee, a womens organization, the relief society. She also pointed out that she had not been exposed to either the Jewish traditional religion nor the Christian, although she would go to Sunday school with friends, from time to time. Now prayer is the focal part of being Mormon.
Lori, like Sandie, dropped out of high school, married Jergon Olivera, his mother Swedish and his father Basque; his father committed suicide when Jergon was 16. Jergon and she had a son Andrew now 20, and daughter Lindsay, 17. The marriage broke up and Lori was a single mother. She writes: I have been a born-again Christian since 1985. She is active in her church (Nazarene, a Protestant fundamental-evangelist sect). My children have been brought up in the Christian church and were baptized into the faith when they were in grade school. I am the bookkeeper for my church ... recording tithes, making yearly tax statements . . . doing payroll . . . I am also the leader of our churchs Prayer Chain, which is a ministry of prayer for those in need. She also noted that My parents did not play a part in my decision to become a Christian. My father was pretty much religion-neutral and my mother was Jewish. The fact that I consider myself a Christian is enhanced by the fact I was born a Jew. I embrace my Jewish heritage and it only makes my Christian experience that much more fulfilling. Surely a statement of faith! It is like Lori herself, a positive personality. She is also an adult student, describing her efforts for a future: I dropped out of school in my junior year. I went back . . . got my high school diploma when I was 22. I attended the local Community College, received my Associate s degree in general education with a 4.0 grade point average. She has completed her first semester at CSU Chico this past year. She aims for a BA in Social Science, with a minor in Conflict Resolution. And attends part-time. She also has a full-time job at the Community College in Bishop, CA. as program manager for the Online Education Program, managing 70 online undergraduates courses and 2000 students. Once she has her BA degree, she will go for a Masters in Education. Then she will have a chance to go anywhere for work, and live her life of faith.
Julie was the first in Jack s family to earn her Community College AA. She married, has a daughter Jacklyn Beauregard, now 13. Julie has Hepatitis C, the source believed to have been an unsterilized tattoo needle when she was 19. She has had a rich life, many experiences but was unable to cope with an interview at this time. When she was diagnosed with hepatitis, she underwent other tests, and one came up she was bipolar. During the past years, with Cheryl and Richards help (prayers), she was baptized in the Baptist church. She too is firm in her new faith, and believes in prayer as a method of healing. She is only 38 years old, and has many years to regain her health.
Terry met his wife when they were students at Fresno State. They have three sons, Jeffrey, Jeremy, David Christopher now three. Their mother Karen graduated and has her BA and is allowed to teach the boys at home. Karen calls the project homeschooling and feels the public schools are in a state of anarchy. Besides the required subjects, religious study has been added. Terry and she are Nazarene churchgoers, and staunch supporters, and are pillars ; they are found oftener at church work than at home. Terry works for the Tulare irrigation water works.
The childrens background was necessary to the events Jack and Sandie underwent. They had cancer surgery early in the year. Last year Jack had angioplasty surgery. This year a diagnosis of colon cancer. When he was due for surgery, Sandie learned she had possible cancer in her breast and had a mammogram. Occupied with Jack s cancer, she held off on her own. The children were advised of Jacks operation, and Lori and Terry came to be with him at the hospital. Both are prayer leaders. Sandie was happy for their presence. Cheryl and Julie, in Arizona, held prayer meetings too. The operation was successful, and he was released the same afternoon. That was a Friday. Sunday morning he awoke with high fever, vomiting and hemorrhaging and was returned to the hospital. Terry and Lori held their healing prayer hours with Jack. Sepsis had developed, a bacterial infection, and antibiotics were used. Jack could not hold food in his stomach and food is necessary for the medicine to work. So his condition was critical. On Thursday, the doctors allowed Terry and Lori to remain all day and no longer spoke reassuring words. A Korean ultrasound technician who heard of the case came in to pray with them. On leaving she said, He will be all right. He is Korean. The next morning Jack awakened, refreshed, took the first food hed had all week. Science had done its job, and I know prayers had done the spiritual part of it. Jack described what he recalled of the bout. He said of Thursday s memory: Suddenly it was dark, and all black, and images flashed through his mind. He thought of early childhood and remembered hed been told that was the procedure in dying, one s life flashing before him. The black part decided he wanted no part of dying. Told himself to get up. I have not heard what he was told of the prayers said for him. He lives in Nevada and his wife reports by telephone. It is enough he is up and going about his daily routine. And Sandie was able to make her appointment with the doctors for the removal of the cancer in her breast. It was done while the children were with them; Cheryl and her husband arrived, then Julie. Terry and Lori had to get back to their jobs. Three months have passed and both patients are well. Their children home, too.
And here in Los Angeles I write about a critical time of illness, Wonderful to write up a miracle of faith. Of science, too. Knowing in another generation it will be a perfect world.